Congratulations, Naomi! You deserve it for all the hard work you did! I showed my mom and sister your before and after pictures-trying to get them all doing strength training regularly-such an inspiration to see such great results in such a short period of time! I know you will have continued success with fitness and health in contest #9!

Just to be clear, I had all those muscles already. It's a bit weird that they don't show up at all in the before photo but the body fat does a great job of hiding them. I'd been working out well over 2 years and strength training at least 3x/week. The weights I lifted were always heavy. The key for me was leaning out. I had no clue that could be done that quickly, nor any concept of how much it would take to make a difference. It's still somewhat of a gray area for me.

It's been a few years since my life changing win here. I am not sure how much longer I have free membership so I just wanted to pop in with a few thoughts.

1. I remain ever grateful for what I learned here. Calories. Shorter but worthwhile workouts. Form. Excellent workouts. Support.
2. I have maintained my metrics, physique, health (with a few setbacks in 2012 when I pushed it too hard), improved sleep/reduced stress.
3. I have begun to allow my learnings of how to succeed to spiral into other areas of positivity in my life; I feel more successful as a person and much more hopeful than I have in over a decade about the rest of my life. I am 49 so this is amazing.
4. Maintenance is work. Each year, I have lost some ground in December but this year, I've attended all events and maintained. I love that I can keep improving.
5. I am using ideas from the workouts to run some bootcamps for moms with babies (babies optional). Super helpful and grateful for having had access to all these workouts so I can provide this service to my local community! I love inspiring others and paying it forward.

Always challenge yourself and set goals. If you are not working towards something, you are stagnating or back sliding.

But don't take on too much at once. I have learned to pick an area and really immerse myself in it, basically as I did each of the 12 week contests I entered.